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Selling Crafts Online
Would you like to start selling crafts online? Read on to find out more:
I
have too many hobbies and not enough time to enjoy them all (it's the
story of my life!). A few times a year, an equally busy girlfriend of
mine and I get together (usually it has to be some kind of a special
occasion like a birthday or a girl's night) and we do what we love,
which is making jewelry.
We joke around about how fun it would be to start selling crafts online or open an online store
together, such as an Etsy store but mostly what we do is make a whole
bunch of jewelry and then give them to friends and family to bring a
little sunshine to their day.
Our last beading/jewelry making adventure got me to wondering a
little about how to start selling crafts online. I was
surprised to say the least, that there are so many online marketplaces
available for creative entrepeneurs.
So, I'll go ahead and list them here, as well as a few tips that may
help you get a business such as this one started off on the right foot.
Selling Crafts online-Etsy
First, here's a little bit of info on Etsy.com. one of the most popular online marketplaces available right now.
Etsy is one of the world's most recognizable online marketplaces for
unique and original handmade creations. Close to 50 million buyers
visit and shop on this website every month.
Etsy charges .20 cents to list an item on their site and if the items sells, they take 3.5% of the sale price.
You are given an online shop which you can design to your taste and name anything you'd like.
(It's always best to try to find a catchy name that also invokes
trust in potential customers, something potentially sweet and non
threatening, just a thought).
If you have some of these unique handmade items already in your
possession, it's best to start listing them right away.. Don't wait
until you have a large amount of inventory. Then you can slowly start
adding more inventory to your store as you go along.
Click here for a little more info on Etsy.
Selling Crafts online- Here are some tips:
1. Take really good photos of your items. Make sure your lighting
is good and that you don't have any clutter in the background.
2. Keywords are really important. Whatever you are selling, you'll
want to load your title and description with as many great keywords as
possible. Think of what types of search terms might be used to locate
an item such as the one you are posting and be very detailed in your
description.
3. If you have a unique story about the item you are selling, by
all means share it. Studies have shown that sellers who sell on websites
such as eBay, for example, have a higher sell rate if they include a
personal story about the item they are selling. (Don't make one up
though).
4. Get your Etsy (or other) store some exposure via Social Media. Link your
Facebook, Twitter , Google +, LinkedIn etc accounts to your Etsy store
and share the beauty of your creations and your successes on social
media.
Share other things as well, so as not to ONLY be talking about your business all the time.
5. If you're like me and need someone to give you step by step
instructions on how to get your Etsy business started, then I might
suggest picking up some books on the subject.
Browse through your local bookstore or if you want to start reading some books on the subject immediately, Amazon.com also has many paperback books on the subject converted into E book form.
You can read them directly from your desktop computer or smartphone
with their free kindle app. Many of them are quite inexpensive, as low
as .99 and sometimes if you keep an eye on them, they will be free for a
day or two a month.
Here are a few Books to look at:
There are other websites as well that offer online marketplaces for your homemade crafts. I will list several of them below:
Have fun!
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